


Worth Every Second

by MorganD



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Humor, Established Relationship, Jalec Spring Break, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 14:20:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10992696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganD/pseuds/MorganD
Summary: They broke the Law. They got caught. It’s time to face the consequences.





	Worth Every Second

Eventually, they get caught.

They kept it a secret for as long as they could. It was the only plausible solution for them, anyway. They knew too much about the Clave’s inner politics to even hope to stand a chance if they tried to openly challenge one of its most accursed taboos. Alec in particular had plenty of political enemies, some inherited from his parents, some acquired on his own merits. And while most Nephilim revered Jace as a war hero, some still whispered behind his back about Valentine’s influence in his upbringing. They had many allies, of course, but asking them to jeopardize their own positions in order to stand by two men who were undeniably committing an iniquitous crime as defined by Nephilim Law? They couldn’t. It was too much to ask even from those who were willing to do it.

Jace often considered running away. He had it all planned out. They would leave for a routine mission, with their steles and weapons and runes, and just never come back. They would leave the country, to a city big enough that they could lose themselves in but too inconsequential to host an active Shadowhunter Institute—he had a handful of candidates, in fact—and then they would vanish into the Mundane World. It was a nice plan, and Jace is sure it would have worked, if only his parabatai were anyone but Alec Lightwood. A man of honor, who lived for his family and his job. If Jace had forced the issue, given him an ultimatum, told him, “It’s either me or them,” he suspects Alec would have chosen his parabatai and followed him into voluntary exile. It wouldn’t have been worthy, though. Alec would have left too much of himself behind, and Jace needs to keep him whole, happy, untroubled by conflicting loyalties.

It wasn’t that hard to keep it a secret, actually. A lot was hidden in plain sight. If anyone caught them hugging or sitting on each other’s lap, they never rushed to separate or pretend they hadn’t been all over each other’s personal space a second ago. They just laughed and bantered and joked with whoever had caught them. They never tried to defend their actions or justify themselves either. They were parabatai! Physical affection surely came with the territory… right? Luckily, parabatai were rare. Few people knew how they were _supposed_ to act around each other, and the few Shadowhunters who did have their own parabatai actually envied Jace and Alec’s closeness. It was the perfect ruse.

Until this morning, anyway.

This morning, Grace Eldervale knocked on Alec’s door and entered without waiting for permission. Later, she would justify her lack of manners by claiming that she had an urgent message from the leader of the North Bergen werewolf pack to relay to Alec. It was probably true, even though she promptly forgot the contents of that message as she laid eyes on the two men on the bed, completely naked and uncovered by any sheets, indulging in a luscious sixty-nine session. Before Jace could even try to get from under Alec’s crotch, Grace had run away screaming. Oh, well. It wasn’t likely that the _“we’re just parabatai being parabatai and doing parabatai things”_ excuse would have worked that time around anyway.

Unfortunately, Grace has held a grudge against Alec since he reprimanded her for speaking out of turn in a formal conference with Downworld leaders and Clave officials several months ago. Eager to prove herself to her boss’s bosses, she didn’t think twice before denouncing him and Jace to the Clave.

So that’s why they’re here now: side by side—as always—facing the judgmental, discomfited faces of the Inquisitor and of a bunch of other Clave officials who had gleefully rushed to the New York Institute to witness their downfall.

“Facilis descensus Averno,” says Alec under his breath.

Jace smiles and brushes his knuckles against Alec’s. The gesture is subtle, but the Inquisitor’s growing frown makes it clear that she noticed it anyway.

Jace meets Inquisitor Eloise Winterrun’s gaze steadily, and wonders for a second whether this whole situation would have been marginally better or infinitely worse if Robert Lightwood still held that position. Hard to say. Robert might have understood it better, considering his own experience with Michael Wayland. On the other hand, he might have felt the need to prove his loyalty to the Law by being merciless to his own son.

 “How long has this… perversion… been going on?” asks the Inquisitor.

“Which part?” Jace ripostes cheekily. “The sex? The relationship? The feelings? Mine or his?”

He can practically feel Alec rolling his eyes.

“You will address me with the proper decorum!” bellows the Inquisitor.

Jace grins. “Of course, ma’am. Will do. My bad.”

“We do not mean to be impertinent, Madam Inquisitor,” says Alec. “My parabatai and I merely request, if you would be so kind, that you specify your question.”

Alec’s politeness fails to gain him much goodwill. “You should know better than to request kindness from the Law, Mr. Lightwood. Now answer my question! How long?”

To his credit, Alec looks completely unperturbed by the Inquisitor’s anger. He turns his face to Jace, his eyes calm and content. “I’ve loved Jace since before I knew what love is. Not too long after he came to live with my family.”

“Before you became parabatai?!”

“Yes. I had no hope that he would ever love me back. When he asked me to be his parabatai, I promised myself that I’d bury my feelings deep and be by his side in the only way I could. But then…”

“I don’t really know when I fell in love with Alec,” Jace admits. “I almost lost him when he tried to track me while I was in Valentine’s ship… and that’s when I realized it. Really not the best timing or circumstances. He had a boyfriend, and I was… well… having a major identity crisis, you could say.” He can’t help but chuckle. “There was also the bit about the world as we knew it being on the brink of coming to an end. So I kept my mouth shut. For as long as I could.”

“Which wasn’t that long, actually,” says Alec with undisguised mirth. “He told me the night before the battle of Brocelind Plain. You know, typical ‘in case we die tomorrow’ speech. Like I needed more reasons to be anxious before a life-or-death combat.”

Jace shrugs. “We’ve already established that my timing sucks.” He looks into Alec’s eyes, wishing they were someplace else, alone, away from those nosy bureaucrats. “I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

Alec shakes his head minutely. “Worth every second.”

The officials exchange scandalized looks. “You mean this… lewd affair… began before the Mortal War?” asks the Inquisitor.

“Technically, the lewd part only started _after_ we won the Mortal War,” says Jace. “A mix of celebration sex and grief sex and I’m-so-glad-we’re-not-dead sex. Yeah, totally worth the wait.”

Alec hides his face behind his right hand. “Jace, please…”

The Inquisitor probably thinks Alec is mortified. Jace knows for a fact that he’s actually trying to conceal his laughter.

Eloise Winterrun eyes them both with disgust. “Have you not been sufficiently warned about the consequences of debasing your sacred bond to give in to this earthly compulsion?”

“We have, naturally,” says Alec.

“Ad nauseam,” remarks Jace.

“So… you simply decided to ignore all the risks! You believe yourselves to be exempt from the Law, insusceptible to the curse of woe and tragedy that have destroyed all parabatai that dared break the taboo!”

Now Jace has to laugh. “Okay, clearly, you don’t know my parabatai. For starters, he researched high and low until he found, amid the most obscure historical records, some _concrete_ reasons why romantic connections between parabatai seemed doomed to disaster, and why the Clave decided to outlaw them. Then he had us seeing a warlock healer regularly to have our magic levels checked and our mental health examined. He was totally paranoid about it at first. Always wondering if some passing thought he had was a sign that he was going crazy, or if something I said as a joke meant that I had gone… well… _crazier_ than usual. But nothing happened.”

Inquisitor Winterrun looks skeptical. “Nothing?”

“Well, none of the scary stuff,” Jace assures her. “No dangerous, corruptive magic. No evidence of insanity, no urges to annihilate the world around us. That’s a good thing, right?”

“We have become more… _attuned_ to each other,” Alec adds. “We can sense each other’s emotions with much more intensity and precision, and pinpoint each other’s location at far greater distances than before.”

“Our fighting skills have improved. Immensely.”

Alec nods. “Yes, we noticed an increased harmony in our movements whenever we fight side by side.”

“Of course, there’s been a lot less fighting to do since the wars,” says Jace with a sigh, “so that’s not an aspect we have explored much lately.”

“Truly, not much has changed,” Alec insists. “Unless you count our ability to finish each other’s…”

“Hoagies,” says Jace.

The Clave officials stare at them, unblinking. The Inquisitor’s thin eyebrows are almost touching her hairline.

“I don’t think they saw that movie, Jace,” Alec whispers conspiratorially to his parabatai.

“Which is _exactly_ what I told Simon. Maybe now he’ll believe me when I tell him Disney is _not_ the perfect common denominator between Nephilim and mundies.”

Inquisitor Winterrun cleans her throat loudly. “Am I to understand that you’re claiming to be immune to the curse that befell all other parabatai that committed the crime of Eros?”

“Hmmm, kinda?” says Jace, taking Alec’s hand in his, not giving a damn to the gasps and cries around them.

“As Jace said, we have taken the threat seriously,” says Alec. “Catarina Loss, the warlock healer we have been consulting with… Her theory is that Jace’s organism has been empowered since birth with a surplus of magic from Ithuriel’s blood.”

“And Alec’s been sharing that power to some extent since our parabatai ceremony.”

“So since the day we became lovers, our bond has indeed strengthened considerably…”

“But our bodies and minds instinctively knew how to adapt to it.”

“That way, most of the excess magic that came from our being together simply fueled the bond itself, and our own personal powers only increased slightly,” explains Alec, in a gross over-simplification of Catarina’s deductions.

“Nothing we couldn’t handle with the aid of training and meditation.”

Instead of looking reassured by those revelations, the Inquisitor seems more and more incensed. “But… the risk you took… The curse...”

“We didn’t just _forget_ about the curse, okay?” Jace snaps impatiently. “We worried about it. We were careful. We paid attention to any signs that something might be wrong. We had someone examining us regularly. But you know, after the first three decades, we came to the conclusion that we probably didn’t have to worry _that much_.”

* * *

The Inquisitor hollers at the two of them for two more hours. The dirty looks from the Clave officials never waver.

Still, eventually, Jace and Alec are allowed to go free. Having to endure Eloise Winterrun’s zealous lecture is their only de facto punishment. Without a credible threat of potential calamities, there is little to throw at them besides moral contempt for their rule-breaking. So the Inquisitor slams them with every insult in the English thesaurus—while Alec wisely holds Jace’s hand tight to keep him from talking back—then lets them go back to their life of iniquity, as long as they do not flaunt the sinful nature of their connection in front of anyone in the Shadow World.

“And for the love of Raziel, do not forget to lock the door again!” Winterrun finishes in exasperation. “We cannot have you two traumatizing the younger staff!”

* * *

“Wow,” Alec murmurs as they slowly make their way back to his room. “This wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.”

“I told you we had no reason to worry,” says Jace, nudging him with the arm he has entwined with Alec’s. “Not at this point in the game.”

“No, why should we? We’re only breaking one of the most sacred laws in our society!” Alec mutters sarcastically. “Plus, we’ve been repeat offenders for longer than Inquisitor Winterrun’s _mother_ has been alive! Really, why should I worry?”

“If they make a big thing out of it, they’ll also have to reveal that the curse didn’t work on us.”

Alec sighs, leaning a little more heavily on his cane. “And that might lead to other parabatai as stupid as us…”

“…who didn’t have a psychopath conduct experiments with their blood while they were still in their mother’s womb…”

“…to follow our steps and try their luck with the curse. You have a point there.”

“Plus, our long record is actually in our favor,” says Jace. “Nobody wants to de-rune a ninety-year-old war veteran.”

“I’m not ninety yet!” Alec protests.

“Matter of months now,” Jace reminds him. “But don’t worry. You really don’t look a day over eighty-five.”

“Well, at least I still have _some_ hair.”

“At least I don’t need a cane to walk.”

“Well, I don’t either!” Alec exclaims, raising the cane and freeing his arm from Jace’s.

“Race you to your bedroom, then?”

Their eyes lock in a staring contest for a long moment, each daring the other to back down.

Eventually, they cave in at the same time and resume, arm in arm, their shuffling journey to their living quarters.

“We should save our energy…”

“…for the good stuff.”

It doesn’t really matter who said what. They’re truly of one mind in that regard.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 3 of Jalec Spring Break – Tribulation (How would they deal with the Clave’s law against parabatai in a romantic relationship?)  
> Includes a deliberately mangled reference to “Love is an Open Door” from “Frozen”. 
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr as morgandeeyue.


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